textile
Americannoun
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any cloth or goods produced by weaving, knitting, or felting.
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a material, as a fiber or yarn, used in or suitable for weaving.
Glass can be used as a textile.
adjective
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woven or capable of being woven.
textile fabrics.
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of or relating to weaving.
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of or relating to textiles or the production of textiles.
the textile industry.
noun
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any fabric or cloth, esp woven
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raw material suitable to be made into cloth; fibre or yarn
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a non-nudist, as described by nudists; one who wears clothes
adjective
Etymology
Origin of textile
1520–30; < Latin textilis woven, textile (noun use of neuter) woven fabric, equivalent to text ( us ), past participle of texere to weave + -ilis, -ile -ile
Explanation
A textile is something made by knitting, weaving, or crocheting fibers together. A textile is a cloth. You’re probably wearing a textile right now! Textile comes from the Latin word, textilis for "woven fabric” and that's exactly what it is. If you’re in the textile business, you’re dealing with the stuff that gets turned into clothes, flags, dishrags, or anything else made of cloth. If you knit a scarf, you create a hand-made textile — although the word is more often used in art or industry, as in textile design or textile imports.
Vocabulary lists containing textile
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
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Human Geography - Middle School
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The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"There is no infrastructure to dispose of these massive amounts of textile waste, and official dump sites have been overflowing for years," environmental organisation Greenpeace says.
From BBC • May 23, 2026
But first the bad news: “Bleed,” a site-specific commission by Kapwani Kiwanga is an impressive wall-size textile work . . . that is impossible to truly see.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026
In addition, GrapheneTex, a textile materiala incorporating this technology, was used in uniforms worn by the Taekwondo demonstration team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
From Science Daily • Apr. 26, 2026
The textile sector -- one of the country's largest exporters -- will be first in line to feel the pain from a prolonged energy shock, the official added.
From Barron's • Apr. 21, 2026
How many mill towns saw their mills close; how many shoe towns saw the shoe industry move elsewhere; how many towns that were once textile powerhouses now buy all their linens from China?
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
